Monday, January 18, 2010

Did You Ever Wonder Just How Narcissistic Stephen Harper Really Was?

Facebook group now at 202,063 members, and the numbers of rallies across the country is growing. There are also rallies planned in New York, Dallas and London, England. Guess they are concerned with the death of democracy in Canada too, so are lending their support.

One thing nice about the group is that Canadians across the country are sharing their stories, but I have to admit this next one kind of scared me.

It seems irrefutable to me after 20 years of analyzing the career of Stephen Harper that he is incapable of providing democratic governance. Harper arguably shows some traits of what psychologists refer to as malignant narcissism, a dangerously heightened sense of self importance. Otto Kernberg, a leader in the study of personality disorders, describes malignant narcissism as "extreme self-absorption and insensitivity that often result in a trail of victims -- emotional wreckage left in the narcissist's wake." The victims Kernberg refers to are, of course, individuals, but in our case the principal victim is the Canadian nation -- its humanist accomplishments, its art and culture, the foundation of its science, its international standing and its democratic governance. ..Well this next story certainly proves that theory. Did you know that he took down the art work and replaced it with pictures of himself? He is one sick puppy.

A week ago Friday I served as Speaker of the House for the Queens University Model Parliament. It was a wonderful opportunity to be with bright and engagedyoung people – several hundred of them. And, as often as I have been in the House of Commons, I have never before spent an hour in the Speaker’s Chair. The Queens annual model Parliament runs for several days in the period when the House is not in session. It was a "model" Parliament in many ways. About half of the MPs were women, as opposed to the 20.8% women in the real – and far from model – Parliament .... ..Why must the images of Stephen Harper be ubiquitous. Is he afraid his caucus will forget who is in charge? Not likely. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols. Someone can figure out what it means that these images dominate. The one thing I know is that it means something.